Kochi: In a major ruling, the Kerala High Court has said that Kerala Chief Minister’s Personal secretary’s wife Priya Varghese’s appointment as associate professor in Kannur University was in violation of UGC norms.
The court directed the university to re-examine the appointment of Priya who did not have a minimum teaching experience of eight years to apply for the Post. Time spent during her research work would not be considered as experience, the court said while delivering the verdict on a petition of Joseph Scaria of SB College, Changanassery.
Scaria who was an aspirant for the post and was placed second just below Priya in the final list.
Priya posted on Facebook her comments on the High Court’s observations about her lack of experience. She deleted it two hours later.
The matter became controversial after the Save University Forum filed a memorandum with the Governor Arif Mohammad Khan, who is the chancellor, against the appointment.
The Governor sought clarification from the Vice Chancellor Gopinath Ravindran and there began a tug of war between the Governor and the Left government which was accused of appointing left candidates in different key posts in the universities in the state.
Priya was appointed last year soon after which the Vice Chancellor’s tenure was extended which led to allegations against the government.
Eleven Vice Chancellor’s have lost their jobs for getting appointments by violatibg UGC norms. The first to leave was M S Rajasree of A P J Abdul Kalam Technical University following a Supreme Court order. Kerala University of Fisheries and Oceanography’s VC Riji John was shown the door by Kerala University on similar grounds.
